Temperature sensors are often used in the semiconductor industry to monitor operating temperatures of devices fabricated on integrated circuit chips. Typically, an actual sensor and associated sensing circuitry are fabricated on a separate chip from that which contains the device, whose temperature is being monitored. A sensor chip is then placed close to a chip containing a device of interest. This means that in reality, the temperature sensor is measuring a temperature of the local environment of the device of interest, not its actual temperature.
One type of temperature sensor includes a semiconductor device such as a p-n junction. The p-n junction conducts a current when forward biased. The p-n junction has an associated voltage drop that is determined by the forward bias current and the temperature of the p-n junction. Voltage drops across the p-n junction are measured for two different forward bias currents. An analog-to-digital converter (ADC) may be employed to convert the voltage drops across the p-n junction to digital data. The digital data is recorded and analyzed to determine the temperature of the p-n junction.
Thus, it is with respect to these considerations and others that the present invention has been made.